2023 Dialogue Pet Food Association Of Canada

2023 PFAC Dialogue May 16, 2023 Ottawa, Ontario Hilton Garden Inn Airport Hotel 2400 Alert Rd, Ottawa ON, K1V 1S1 www.pfac.com – (416) 447-9970 – [email protected] Schedule 8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast 8:30 – 9:30 Market Access Panel – Indo Pacific Strategy and Other Challenges Michelle Cooper, Director General, AAFC/CFIA, International Branch Darren Smith, Executive Director, GAC, Technical Barriers & Regs 9:30 – 10:00 Global Agri-Food Trade Outlook Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance Speaker TBD 10:00 – 10:30 Break 10:30 – 11:15 CFIA Discussion Dr. Kafidi, Dr. Aklil – CFIA Import/Export, Animal products & by-products, CFIA Feed Program rep invited 11:15 – 12:00 AAFCO Update – PFLM AAFCO Executive Director or Board member 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch 1:00 – 1:30 Trade Updates Cary Seipp, Deputy Director, Trade Negotiations, AAFC 1:30 – 2:00 US Update Betsy Flores, Pet Food Institute 2:30 – 2:45 Break 2:45 – 3:30 Canadian Business Overview and Outlook Marwa Abdou, Canadian Chamber of Commerce 3:30 Adjournment Why should you attend? Attend the first in-person, updated RAAWG format, where all can participate on the afternoon of May 15 Join your industry colleagues on May 16 to hear directly from government staff on topics related to pet food and interact with them in an open discussion format Network with PFAC members to share information on common issues LEARN MORE How do these speakers help me? Michelle Cooper is the Director General of the AAFC/CFIA International Branch and leads the Market Access Secretariat, and works directly with trade commissioners around the world to advance market access issues and technical trade barriers Darren Smith is an Executive Director at Global Affairs Canada, and his team works on technical trade barriers and market access issues under the trade policy and negotiations division Both are critical in gaining and expanding market access, dealing with trade barriers, and working to make any future trade agreements fair and advantageous for Canadian exporters PFAC joined as a ‘friend’ of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) last year. This group is made up of major agri-food exporting associations, and works to advance trade issues around the world through advocacy with Canadian government PFAC joined to grow its capacity in government relations on trade topics, partnering with a group of large, influential exporters – so it is important to hear on how they can help pet food from a generalized agri-food approach to trade Our colleagues at the CFIA, Dr. Kafidi and Dr. Aklil, will once again join us to provide updates, answer any pressing questions, and talk through any challenges in specific markets in an open discussion. This is extremely valuable one on one time with the group that most closely oversees day to day pet food oversight. With the AAFCO Pet food labelling modernization initiative becoming closer to a reality, it is import- ant to hear from AAFCO about the changes, what to expect with regard to timelines, and how it could impact the Canadian industry and exports to the US. This session will be followed up with a more detailed educational session for members in the future. As out largest trading partner, it is always important to hear what is happening in the US, and to bring us these updates, we will hear from Betsy Flores, Senior Vice President of Public Policy. PFAC continues to build on our already strong relationship with PFI, and will add more opportunities to collaborate this year. Cary Seipp is the Deputy Director of the Bilateral FTA negotiations unit of the AAFC Trade negoti- ations division. Canada has an ambitious trade agenda, with many moving parts and negotiations happening at the same time with the UK, India, Indonesia, ASEAN, and other parts of the world. It is important to understand where these line up, and how and when pet food exporters will be able to take advantage to continue to expand and diversify trade. Finally, we will wrap up the day with Marwa Abdou from the Business Data Lab at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, who will provide a more general and high level overview of the business outlook for manufacturing and trade. 3 years since the pandemic started, and the pet food and many other sectors have been impacted by labour challenges, supply chain issues, inflation, and other fac- tors, so it is important to hear if and how these may be changing and what to expect moving forward. www.pfac.com – (416) 447-9970 – [email protected]